Admissions end but 40,000 seats vacant

Even after the entire admission process is through, there are nearly 40,000 general category vacant seats remaining in junior colleges.

The education department released the third, and what was supposed to be the final list on Thursday, but has said it will on August 31 release a fourth final list, for those students who have not been allotted any seat yet.

There are approximately 4,500 students such students who did not get any college even when the third general merit list came out.

"Those students who get upgraded thanks to the betterment option will leave some seats vacant. The remaining 4,479 students will be allotted in those vacancies," said a senior official from the education department.

"These students failed to get allotted even on the third list because there were colleges no one had opted for and we could not even accommodate them on the basis of their location."

The seats remaining after the fourth and final list will be filled in through offline admissions. Students Allowed to Keep Term, those who haven't applied so far and international board students will be able to apply for these remaining seats.

The department will declare the vacant seats on September 2. It was originally supposed to do so on August 31.

Cut-offs in the third list dropped marginally in the coveted colleges for science and commerce, as compared to the second list.

"The list closed at a high percentage, probably because of the improvement in scores thanks to the Best-Five scheme," said Sangita Kher, vice-principal of NM College at Vile Parle. The second list for commerce at NM closed at 92.55 per cent, and the third list at 92.18.

Cut-offs on this year's third list were higher than last year's by up to two percentage points.

"The lists closed higher than last year, this isn't so unnatural," said Marie Fernandes, principal of St Andrew's College, Bandra.